Pike + Rose: the stakes are high, but the benefits could be huge

Rendering of Pike + Rose. When finished, it’ll be 5 times the size of Bethesda Row.

Federal Realty’s mixed-use developments have transformed suburbs from Bethesda to San Jose. But the size and ambition of their newest project, Pike + Rose in White Flint, will test the limits of creating an urban place from scratch.

Last week, the Rockville-based developer unveiled their plans for Pike + Rose, a new neighborhood that will be built over the next several years at the former Mid-Pike Plaza shopping center at Rockville Pike and Montrose Parkway. As Lindsay Hoffman wrote last week, it will be huge, with 3.5 million square feet of apartments, offices, shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and a hotel on 24 acres. The first of four phases at Pike + Rose broke ground this summer and will open in 2014; when finished, it’ll be 5 times the size of Bethesda Row, which took Federal Realty over a decade to build.

But unlike Bethesda Row, which was built in an established community with some urban features, Pike + Rose will attempt to create an urban environment from scratch. The challenge is to create a place that feels “authentic” without the benefit of time and to encourage tenants and visitors to get out of their cars in an area where driving is often the only way to get around.

As the first big project to be built under the White Flint Sector Plan approved in 2010, county planners, elected officials, other developers and residents will be watching to see how successful it is. If done well, Pike + Rose could become a standard-bearer for White Flint, a glimpse of the community’s future and a signal to other property owners to step up their game.

New suburban town centers are often derided as fake and contrived, though they have the ability to create meaningful urban places. Like other Federal Realty projects, Pike + Rose tries to avoid this by looking like it’s been built over time.

One way is through having a variety of building forms. Along Rockville Pike are tall office towers with large retail spaces, which will give big companies and big-box stores alike the visibility and prominence they want. In the center of the site is Grand Park Avenue, a street with smaller shops, restaurants and a plaza that could become Pike + Rose’s social heart.

And along Hoya Street are a line of “point towers,” apartment buildings whose ground-floor units have private entrances and yards, providing a transition to the residential neighborhoods to the west.

Some of these buildings are more successful than others. This approach is hard to do, and when executed poorly, it really can feel artificial. But it can be avoided if each building, regardless of architectural style, is done to a high standard.

A building with poor details or cheap materials in any style will look bad, but if those things are done well, the building should mature with time. Federal Realty did a good job with this in Bethesda Row and Rockville Town Square, though it may be too early to tell how they’ll look in the future.

Will it be “connected”?

Site plan showing the new streets and blocks at Pike + Rose.

To its potential tenants and visitors, Pike + Rose claims to offer a complete live-work-play environment. But Ben Harris, who writes a local blog called North FlintVille, notes that a truly “organic” development is one that “is itself a small part of a greater whole.”

The White Flint Sector Plan calls for a grid of new streets, which will divert traffic from Rockville Pike, provide multiple connections between each development, and make it easier to get around by foot or bike. Pike + Rose does their part with their network of streets and pedestrian passages, which divide the site into 9 city blocks. Those streets will eventually link up with new streets built by Montgomery County and the state of Maryland, such as an extension of Hoya Street to Old Georgetown Road.

Though the streets are pretty narrow compared to the arterial roads surrounding the development, they appear to have generous sidewalks with lots of landscaping and street trees. The blocks themselves are fairly small; most average about 300 feet long, comparable to blocks in older, inner-city neighborhoods.

Federal Realty’s renderings show lively streets lined with restaurants and shops, but it’s important that they don’t simply stop at the edge of the development. That’s what happened at Rockville Town Square, which has two great internal streets but presents blank walls, loading docks and parking garages to the rest of the world.

If Rockville Pike is going to become an urban boulevard, it needs to have buildings open onto it, whether with shops, restaurants, or even large windows that people can see into. The same goes for Old Georgetown Road, where the Sector Plan calls for a two-acre Civic Green across from Pike + Rose that could become White Flint’s answer to Dupont Circle.

The stakes are high

Aerial rendering of Pike + Rose.

Ten years ago, Federal Realty decided to stick with building and running strip malls. They’d literally been burned by Santana Row, an ambitious town center in San Jose that suffered a catastrophic fire and opened half-empty in a recession, and decided that the risk and complexity of urban redevelopment wasn’t worth it.

Like Santana Row, the stakes at Pike + Rose are high. Judging from the details we have so far, it could not only transform White Flint, but light the way for suburban redevelopments across the country.

5 Responses to Pike + Rose: the stakes are high, but the benefits could be huge

You seem to have forgotten that this new development, with its large numbers of people, will overwhelm the already traffic saturated Rockville Pike. It can’t hold any more cars. Other infrastructure, such as schools, electricity, water, gas, and emergency services, are saturated also. These conversions of traditional suburbia to urbania also cause a decline in quality of life for existing residents. There simply is no necessity for the County Council to continue approving all these development requests. They primarily serve to profit developers. Before the developments are built, the infrastructure should be in place, to avoid gridlock on roads, overcrowding of schools, continued electrical power outages, etc. Developers should also build new parks, greenspace, and green buffer zones.

Marc, I think you miss some major points. This developer is required to build every street on their property, some are private, some are part of a planned public network. This development at this density was also approved because of proximity to Metro, Bus, future possible BRT, and it’s access to Montrose Parkway and Old Georgetown Road in addition to 355. The developer is also required to pay the mandatory impact fees for schools, provide mitigation payments for transportation, underground all electric lines and provide on site recreation space and provide adequate transitions at the edge of the property to be compatible with surrounding uses, which on 3 sides are major roads, and the fourth, an office park.

As a Rockville resident and real estate professional; I am excited about the White Flint Project. My family, friends and I would have more options for shopping, and dining in my own neighborhood without having to travel to Bethesda.

The White Flint Implementation Advisory Committee is a body appointed by the Planning Board in 2010 to: Review assumptions made regarding traffic, including transit use and parking Monitor plan recommendations Identify new projects for the[...]

The White Flint Downtown Advisory Committee was appointed by the County Executive and County Council to advise on public services within the sector, coordinate community activities and create an Urban District. The DAC is scheduled[...]

The White Flint Implementation Advisory Committee is a body appointed by the Planning Board in 2010 to: Review assumptions made regarding traffic, including transit use and parking Monitor plan recommendations Identify new projects for the[...]

The White Flint Downtown Advisory Committee was appointed by the County Executive and County Council to advise on public services within the sector, coordinate community activities and create an Urban District. The DAC is scheduled[...]

The White Flint Implementation Advisory Committee is a body appointed by the Planning Board in 2010 to: Review assumptions made regarding traffic, including transit use and parking Monitor plan recommendations Identify new projects for the[...]

The White Flint Downtown Advisory Committee was appointed by the County Executive and County Council to advise on public services within the sector, coordinate community activities and create an Urban District. The DAC is scheduled[...]

The White Flint Implementation Advisory Committee is a body appointed by the Planning Board in 2010 to: Review assumptions made regarding traffic, including transit use and parking Monitor plan recommendations Identify new projects for the[...]

The White Flint Downtown Advisory Committee was appointed by the County Executive and County Council to advise on public services within the sector, coordinate community activities and create an Urban District. The DAC is scheduled[...]

The White Flint Implementation Advisory Committee is a body appointed by the Planning Board in 2010 to: Review assumptions made regarding traffic, including transit use and parking Monitor plan recommendations Identify new projects for the[...]

The White Flint Downtown Advisory Committee was appointed by the County Executive and County Council to advise on public services within the sector, coordinate community activities and create an Urban District. The DAC is scheduled[...]